He laughed with a self-satisfied air and asked back. The color drained entirely from Munyeong’s face, leaving it pale and bloodless.
**
Without a doubt.
Haejeong confirmed it with the look of someone who’d had their suspicions proven right.
In truth, he’d suspected it from the very beginning. From the way Munyeong had taken all his unreasonable demands at face value without protest. From the way he’d draped a blanket over him while he slept on the day of the inauguration ceremony. And above all, from the fact that Munyeong had let a man he barely knew sleep under his roof without hesitation — that alone was proof enough that his intentions weren’t innocent. How long had they known each other, and yet he’d taken a grown man into his home just like that. That made absolutely no sense. And the thing that had made him most certain of all was the night before. The way Munyeong had squeezed his eyes shut as though bracing to receive a kiss — that had left Haejeong with no room for doubt.
Im Munyeong still had feelings for him.
Well. How could someone forget a person like me.
Haejeong let out an audible laugh of amusement.
“…Is something good happening for you today?”
That same morning. Before he’d even run into Munyeong in the smoking area. Haejeong couldn’t stop the laughter that kept slipping out as he thought endlessly about Munyeong the night before — standing there like a child, eyes scrunched shut, holding perfectly still. Section Chief Jo Dongjin, watching him from across the room, looked slightly unnerved by the peculiar display and quietly drew back a little before asking.
“What.”
Haejeong wiped the smile from his face as if it had never been there and stared at him with an expression that said what are you on about.
“No, I just… you seemed to be in a good mood……”
Jo Dongjin mumbled his explanation while avoiding Haejeong’s sharp gaze.
“Never mind that. Send me Im Munyeong’s schedule.”
Haejeong looked around the cramped management office with mild distaste as he gave the order.
“…You came all the way down here just to ask for that?”
“Why. Something wrong with that?”
“……No, it’s just, you have plenty of secretaries……”
“It’s my business. Making an issue out of nothing.”
The fact that Haejeong had gone out of his way to come all the way down to the basement office was baffling, and Jo Dongjin couldn’t help but wonder. But he didn’t press any further, and began flipping through handwritten documents in the bookshelf drawer as he asked:
“Do you just need Munyeong’s?”
“Munyeong’s?”
“Yes, Munyeong’s.”
“Ha. Manager Jo. Are you close with Im Munyeong?”
“……Pardon?”
“I said, are you close with him.”
The sudden shift in tone and the question that followed left Jo Dongjin opening and closing his mouth with a blank look. He couldn’t read the intention behind the question at all, and an answer didn’t come easily.
“……Well, not particularly. He’s been here longer than most, so… it’s not like we’re close close……”
“Im Munyeong. Use his full name. Properly.”
“…….”
“This is a company, isn’t it? Even if he is a non-regular employee, is it really okay to call him by his first name like that — all familiar, like he’s some friend of yours?”
“……I’m, I’m sorry.”
Was what I did really bad enough to be cornered like this…? Jo Dongjin couldn’t conceal his flustered state and blinked rapidly. He was clearly in a bad mood. Maybe he’d gotten smacked around somewhere and was coming here to take it out on someone. There was no other reason to make a scene over something as trivial as how he addressed one of the employees.
“Anyway. Has he come in today?”
“Pardon? Who?”
“God… who else. Im Munyeong.”
“Ah, Munyeong… no, Munyeong — I mean, Mr. Munyeong.”
“Im Munyeong.”
“Ah yes, Im Munyeong. He… hasn’t come in yet today. He’s on the afternoon shift.”
The out-of-nowhere correction on how to address someone threw Jo Dongjin, but he quickly picked up on the cue and adjusted accordingly.
“Is that right? Where in the afternoon?”
“Pardon…?”
“Hah. You make me say everything twice.”
“Ah……. Ah, yes. Ah, well… when Im Munyeong comes in, I think he’ll be making his rounds starting from the rooftop smoking area in the afternoon……”
Why on earth did you come down here to pull this. Jo Dongjin couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but in the interest of peace he quietly answered whatever was being asked of him.
“And the office cleaning?”
“Ah, today he’ll be doing that after the Managing Director and Executive Directors have left for the day, so you needn’t worry about it.”
But since when has he ever been this particular about cleaning?
The Yeon Haejeong Jo Dongjin knew had never once shown interest in cleaning or in anyone below him.
“Still, you seem to have a particular interest in Im Munyeong.”
“What?”
“No, I mean, there’s the personal hire as well… does your mother know about this?”
Haejeong looked at him flatly, with an expression that said what does that have to do with anything, and Jo Dongjin flustered and started to stumble over his words.
“I mean… it’s just that the person who attends to you personally is someone your mother selects very strictly……”
“It has nothing to do with my mom.”
“Ah…… It sounds like you’ve taken a liking to him, then.”
“…It’s not that I’ve taken a liking to him.”
“Pardon?”
“I have not taken a liking to him. Damn it.”
Haejeong flared up as if he’d been poked somewhere sore and kicked the leg of the table in front of him with a thud. The old habit of leading with a kick whenever something didn’t sit right with him seemed to be alive and well. Afraid he might be the one to get hit next, Jo Dongjin didn’t push further and smiled pleasantly.
“I’ll send you the schedule right away.”
“Keep it updated whenever anything changes.”
“Yes, sir.”
Haejeong looked him over as if to say do it right, then stepped out of the barely five-pyeong office. Jo Dongjin held his bow until the sound of footsteps had faded completely, and only once he could no longer sense a presence did he let out a long, free breath. Of the three Yeon brothers, this one was by far the hardest to deal with. Whatever people might say about him on the outside, he openly threw his weight around in a way that made it impossible not to tread carefully around him.
And of all people, how did Munyeong end up on this guy’s radar…. Jo Dongjin’s heart clenched with worry at the thought — what if Munyeong ended up quitting because of all this.
**
In any case, Haejeong trusted his own instincts one hundred percent. Every time the image of Munyeong squeezing his eyes shut — possibly bracing for a kiss — floated back to the surface of his mind, Haejeong covered his face and let out a low, scheming laugh.
Of course. I knew it.
Of all people. At least his standards are high.
He kept snickering throughout the meeting, and the employees who were presenting the business plan exchanged glances with each other, silently asking what was wrong with him. Then during the executive meeting that followed, Yeon Juhyeok’s fist trembled as he watched Haejeong sitting there chuckling to himself.
A subsidiary president gently asked what he found so amusing, and Haejeong answered flatly with his eyes creased: “And what business is it of yours?” The blunt reply sent a brief, heavy silence through the meeting room. Everyone sat in discomfort while Haejeong alone looked utterly unbothered, turning to the silent executives and asking with complete indifference: “What are you all doing. Aren’t we having a meeting?” A bold thing to say from someone who hadn’t listened to a single word of the meeting up to that point.
After the meeting ended, Haejeong returned to his office with a look of deep displeasure — having received a smack on the head from Yeon Juhyeok. He could have clocked out once the meeting was done; it wasn’t as if he were the type to work hard regardless, and his university friends had been reaching out asking to meet, so he was weighing whether to go when the schedule Jo Dongjin had mentioned suddenly came to mind.
Knock knock.
At that moment, his work secretary knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
At his brief reply, the secretary entered carrying a full armload of bound documents.
